Two North Texas women were sentenced Tuesday to federal prison for staging auto accidents to scam insurance companies.

Kara Lashon Collins, 36, and Stephanie Denise Moses, 45, are accused of running a Fort Worth-based scheme with two other people aimed at defrauding insurance companies for fraudulent personal injury and property damage claims, according to court documents.

The group operated for five years and scammed hundreds of thousands of dollars from several insurance companies, according to court documents.

The defendants staged car accidents often using salvaged vehicles and stole identities to file fraudulent insurance claims for injuries. They also created several fictitious chiropractic clinics to charge the insurance companies for medical bills.

Both women pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in April. Collins was sentenced to nearly four years in prison, and Moses was sentence to one year, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Their sentences begin Jan. 3.

Collins will pay $356,000 in fines, and Robinson will pay $95,000 in fines.

Frenchitt Su-Dell Collins, 42, and Alan Murray Robinson, 32, were previously sentenced the for the fraudulent insurance scheme. Both were convicted on one count conspiracy to commit mail fraud and health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to tamper with witnesses.

Frenchitt Collins was also convicted of on three counts of mail fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison and will pay $700,000 in fines.

Robinson was convicted of an additional count of mail fraud and faces about nine years in prison and $203,000 in fines.

Dallas police are looking for three suspects connected to a robbery and beating downtown Monday night.

The victim was walking in the 1700 block of Caddo Street near the intersection of Ross Avenue and Haskell Street when three men approached him. They beat and kicked him until he was unconscious, according to police reports.

Police released surveillance video of the incident.

One of the suspects held a gun during the incident. The men stole the victim’s shoes, wallet containing $71 and jacket worth $100. They fled the scene in a white full-size regular cab Dodge pickup truck with a long bed.

The suspects were described as wearing dark clothing, and one of the men was wearing a Michigan jacket.

The victim was taken to Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas with life-threatening injuries.

Update at 5:38 p.m.: Dallas police just word that homicide detectives have arrested Paul Roberts Pickens, who is one of two men wanted in connection with the shooting deaths of Santana Rodriguez and Ivan Garcia at the La Sierra Apartments near Dallas Love Field. And that is all DPD is releasing at the moment: “Homicide Detectives continue to follow up on leads.”

Dallas County Jail)

Paul Robert Pickens remains at large, but here's a mug shot from his 2011 arrest on an arson charge.

Dallas police have issued an arrest warrant for Pickens, who is wanted for capital murder and an aggravated assault committed against a third person who name is redacted from the affidavit.

The document confirms what the police report made quite clear: This was a drug deal gone bad.

Says the doc, the dead men were “involved in illegal narcotic transactions” with Pickens and “an unknown black male known as June.” But it didn’t go well: A fight broke out, at which point, says the affidavit, Pickens and June pulled guns. The report says Pickens killed one man, who died at the scene, and shot another, who survived. The affidavit says June shot another man, who was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Both gunmen escaped and remain at large.

The affidavit says it became clear during the investigation that Pickens was a suspect. At that point, says the document, the survivor was shown a “double blind six-photo lineup” containing his photo. And, indeed: The survivor positively ID’d Pickens.

Dallas police are asking for help finding a Richardson man they hope to question in connection with a fatal weekend shooting at a North Dallas hotel.

Juan Reynoso, 39, is considered a person of interest (cop-speak for “not quite a suspect”) in the death of Jeronimo Gutierrez Daza. Police say he drives a black Nissan Xterra.

Daza, 36, was shot and killed shortly before 4:30 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of the Red Roof Inn on North Central Expressway at Midpark Road. A second man with Daza was shot in the chest but survived.

Dallas police Sgt. Michael Felini called the crime “a domestic-related disturbance.” Daza went to the motel to pick up his girlfriend with the other man when an argument began with the woman’s ex-boyfriend.

No arrest has been made, but at the time police said they were preparing a warrant for the ex-boyfriend.

It was the second deadly shooting at a motel in the area in two days. On Saturday, three people were shot and killed at a Motel 6 just south of the Red Roof Inn. Police said the shootings were not related.

Update, 5:27 p.m. by Leslie Minora:
This afternoon, the defense called Melinda Merck, a nationally recoginized veterinary forensics expert, who said the dog’s injuries were likely caused by compression force. She said her conclusion is consistent with Good falling on top of the dog.

Merck said today was the first time she testified on behalf of the defense in an animal cruelty case. Typically, she helps prosecutors build cases, as she did in the infamous animal cruelty case against NFL quarterback Michael Vick.

The prosecutor questioned Merck’s credibility and asked whether another scenario, where Good could have kicked the animal against a wall, would have resulted in similar injuries.

“That’s a type of compression injury, is it not?” he asked.

“You wouldn’t have a compression fracture,” Merck said. There would be a more focused injury where the foot struck and a compression injury on the other side.

She had previously said the animal’s compression fracture to its ribs could have been from a hand falling on the side of it’s midsection.

The defense attorney, Kevin Ross, described a scenario where Good fell on the dog and the upper part of his chest made contact with the animal.

“Is that a likely scenario?” he asked.

“Yes, these injuries are classic compression,” Merck said.

The trial will continue at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

Original:Staff writer Charles Scott reports:

A Grapevine man on trial today in the beating death of his girlfriend’s dog gave several explanations for the animal’s injuries.

First, Alexander Good told Erica Craycraft that an iron may have fallen on Jack, her 5-year-old Chihuahua-Jack Russell mix. Next, he said the dog hurt himself falling into his food bowl. Finally, he said he tripped while jogging with Jack and fell on top of him.

“I’m sorry. It’s my fault,” Good said in a phone call played for the jury in a packed Dallas courtroom.

Good, 27, pleaded not guilty this morning to a felony animal cruelty charge in the dog’s August 2011 death.

A man who used a sledgehammer to knock down his estranged wife’s door and then shot and killed her in the back yard of her Arlington home pleaded guilty to murder charges Monday and will receive a 40-year prison sentence.

Patrick Edward Arnold, 69, was going through a “nasty” divorce from his wife, Linda Kay Arnold, when he showed up at her home on June 10, 2010, according to his attorney Terri Moore.

The music teacher in the Arlington school district was shot in front of her neighbor outside her home the 4100 block of Green Acres Circle.

A day before the shooting, Patrick Arnold was ordered to pay spousal support and his wife’s attorney’s fees, and faced jail time if he refused. He was also forbidden from calling, texting or getting within 200 feet of her home or the schools where she worked.

After shooting his wife to death, Arnold drove to the police station, confessed and showed police the location of the murder weapon, Moore said.

Moore said Arnold did not want a trial at first and asked prosecutors to seek the death penalty in his case.

“It was the talk of an extremely remorseful man,” Moore said. “He didn’t want to put the family members of his deceased wife through a trial and worry if he was going to be found guilty.”

The plea agreement was reached after officials spoke to Kay Arnold’s daughter.

Arnold previously received a 30-year prison sentence in 1982 after he was convicted in Dallas County of theft, burglary of a home, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon.

He was released 10 years later in October 1992, but returned about a year later after a parole violation. He was released again in August 2000 with mandatory supervision, which would have ended in April 2013.

“The last time he was in prison, the warden was moved to a new prison and Patrick was one of the inmates he brought with him,” Moore said. “He’s fragile, but in the right circumstances, he does well.”

Last week’s theft of hundreds of dollars from a SPCA adoption display at NorthPark Center got one donor howling.

Heidi Larsen of Allen says she’s donating $800 to the animal welfare group to replace the stolen money. She originally visited the NorthPark display on Friday and donated $20 before the funds were stolen by a man Larsen described as “a heartless, soulless person who doesn’t deserve charity of any kind.”

The thief canvassed the display area for about 10 to 15 minutes before grabbing the box and running out an exit door held open by his partner, said James Bias, president of SPCA Texas. The box is now bolted to a counter.

Larsen said she will be sending a check for $800 to “make sure that the awful actions of some don’t take away from the incredibly giving actions of others.”

Staff writer Charles Scott reports:

A man stole an SPCA donation box containing hundreds of dollars from the group’s annual pet adoption event last week at NorthPark Center.

Witnesses say the man had been hanging around the area 10 to 15 minutes before he went to the box to drop a dollar inside about 5 p.m. Friday, according to a police report.

A staff member with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals thanked him for his donation, and he grabbed the donation box and fled the mall with a second man.

“His partner held the exit door … and both ran outside,” James Bias, president of the SPCA of Texas, told WFAA-TV (Channel 8).

The Plexiglas box was later found cracked open and empty in a parking garage. The police report says it contained $800.

No arrests have been made, and police had yet to release a description of the suspects.

The SPCA is urging donors who dropped checks in the box Friday to stop payments on them.

“Our concern is that there are other people that left checks in that donation canister,” said Maura Davis, an SPCA spokeswoman.

The donation box will now be bolted to the counter, with staff emptying it throughout the day, Channel 8 reports.

The group’s annual pet adoption event, which attracts hundreds of donors, began on Black Friday and lasts through Dec. 23.